Would you eat cheese cultivated from your armpit sweat or toe jam? No? Then you should rethink your prejudices about bacteria
CHRISTINA AGAPAKIS stood in her kitchen trying to decide whether she had the nerve to eat what was in front of her. On the worktop sat four blobs of cheese – but not just any stinky fromage. Agapakis, who is a synthetic biologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, had made the stuff with bacteria from her armpit, nose and toes.
“Each one had a very different smell,” she says. “Some were dry and brittle and yellow, others were more yogurty”. Surely she wouldn’t dare taste it. Would she?
Agapakis picked up a chunk and popped it in her mouth. If you’re wondering why anybody would do such a thing, well, she has her reasons. Agapakis is on a mission to change our ideas about the role of microbes in food production and elsewhere – and she’s not the only one.
Christina Agapakis wants to make more of microbes (Image: Sam Flaconer)
She and other researchers join chefs, food producers and even a nun who argue that our attitude to bacteria in food is far too prissy. “It’s about understanding that we have allies as well as foes in the microbial world,” says anthropologist Heather Paxson at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who has studied this ultra pro-bug movement.
Their message goes much further than pointing out how bacteria are handy for tasks like culturing yogurt. They want to tell the whole story about microbes, and everything they do for flavour, nutrition and …
